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4.23 AVERAGE
4.23 AVERAGE
“There's no such thing as a nobody. And there are no mistakes.”
―Mitch Albom, The Next Person You Meet in Heaven
*Warning: a few spoilers ahead*
This is another one of those books where I didn't enjoy the predecessor all that much so I wasn't expecting anything. Thankfully, though, the book was a pleasant surprise. First of all, to lay down a little background information, Mitch Albom is not an author with a writing style that just anyone can stomach. Wording-wise, you get nothing too fancy and it actually reads pretty quickly. What I see most people grumble about is the tone - to some it comes off as "Hallmark" and preachy. Personally, I did not see too many mentions of the Father so if a few reminders of prayer, and well, heaven, are all right with you, then by all means, carry on.
Following Annie, the girl Eddie from the first book saved as a child, I was devastated from the start that she died as well. It felt as if the events of the previous installment were now moot. Still, I wanted to know more about her, about her life and her story. Maybe because she was a young woman, I felt like I could understand her plights more. Given that, I sympathized with her - her fear of being ostracized, her inability to connect with a distant parent, her disbelief at finding love, among other things most young adults feel. I flipped through the chapters, nodding and highlighting plenty of things I believed in and related to.
Watching Annie patch herself together in her heaven, learning about herself and her purpose, slowly renouncing her lifelong belief that she was a series of mistakes, even reliving events that might have convinced her otherwise, was immensely satisfying and heartbreaking at the same time. She grew in such a short span of time, and the twist at the end, though tragic, proved just how much she's changed, because her attitude towards what happened became a complete antithesis of who she was at the beginning.
Overall: This can be read alone, and to anyone who doesn't wish to read too many proverb-sounding insights or "Hallmark" quotes, I suggest you pick this up over The Five People You Meet in Heaven. As the first book was about a war veteran who died at a ripe age, this one I think speaks more to young hearts who used to living fast and yet afraid of dying young. It's a quick read, and a reminder to love more, forgive often, and hold on.
5/5
Because we embrace our scars more than our healing. [...] We can recall the exact day we got hurt, but who remembers the day the wound was gone?
Have you ever considered how many living things there are on earth? [...] People. Animals. Birds. Fish. Trees. It makes you wonder how anyone could feel lonely. Yet humans do. It's a shame
I needed to save you. It let me make up for the life I took. That's how salvation works. The wrongs we do open doors to do right.
The end of loneliness is when someone needs you. And the world is so full of need.
Remember this, Annie. When we build, we build on the shoulders of those who came before us. And when we fall apart, those who came before us help put us back together.
Did you know," the old woman said now, standing beside the grown-up Annie, "that a dog will go to a crying human before a smiling one? Dogs get sad when people around them get sad . They're created that way. It's called empathy. Humans have it, too. But it gets blocked by other things -- ego, self-pity, thinking your own pain must be tended to first. Dogs don't have those issues.